Live News From Spain As It Happens

TENERIFE will once again become the backdrop for a Hollywood blockbuster – this time the long-awaited sequel Wonder Woman 1984.

Parts of the west of the island will become an open-air film set during the last week in September and the first week in October in the fantasy adventure production which, like the original, will be directed by Patty Jenkins, with Israeli actress Gal Gadot as Diana Prince and Chris Pine as Steve Trevor back in their original roles.

Kristen Wiig will play the main villain, Cheetah, and Game of Thrones and Narcos actor Pedro Pascal will play a central role.

Tenerife was also chosen as location for scenes from the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans and its 2012 sequel Wrath of the Titans, as well as Fast & Furious 6, starring Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THIS year's world-famous tomato-throwing festival has once again left rivers of 'blood' in the streets and wrecked the clothing of visitors from all five continents, who caused the population of the host town to swell to 320% of its usual size.

Buñol – about 20 kilometres west of Valencia off the A-3 Valencia-Madrid motorway – is normally a sleepy market town of 10,000 inhabitants with a moderate British expat community settled there and in neighbouring towns.

Except on the last Wednesday of August every year, that is.

This, known as La Tomatina, is the date when lorry-loads of ripe tomatoes are poured into the main square at 11.00 on the dot, and participants – many of whom have travelled from as far away as Japan or Australia – get exactly an hour to hurl them at everyone else.

Nobody is allowed to start before the horn blows, and when it sounds again at noon, they have to stop right there.

Chucking tomatoes at faces or heads, or pulling at people's clothing, is not allowed, but the impact of 145 tonnes of salad fruit means whatever participants are wearing at the time will no longer be worn again, or even suitable for cleaning the car with.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HALOGEN lightbulbs' days are numbered in the European Union – from September 1, they may no longer be manufactured or sold and only LED bulbs will be found in the shops.

Spanish environmental campaigners Ecologists in Action has welcomed the move, calling it 'great news', but says it is only a small step towards cutting power pollution.

Head of energy Javier Andaluz says lightbulbs are only a 'minor part' of household energy consumption and that other elements, such as large electrical appliances, are 'much more polluting'.

“If you pick up a total household electricity bill, you'll see that the washing machine or the heating causes more pollution than a lightbulb,” Andaluz argues.

He advocates renewable sources such as solar panels for each and every house to 'reduce energy impact and climate change'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

STUNNED bathers on a beach in Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz province) watched as a raftload of migrants docked on the sands yesterday (Sunday).

The jerry-built and barely-seaworthy craft rowed ashore onto the La Barrosa beach (pictured) at around midday, carrying at least 50 migrants.

Those on board were of Magrib or north African origin, who tend to be less-frequently seen entering Spain's coasts than sub-Saharan Africans.

Among them were 10 children of various ages.

The Bermeja Tower part of La Barrosa – one of Cádiz province's most touristy beaches – was full to bursting with bathers at the time, and around a thousand were said to be crowded round watching.

Before any of the sunseekers was able to speak to them to find out if they needed medical attention or food, the occupants fled into a nearby pine forest.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SPANISH family on holiday in Rome has been fined €450 after their 12-year-old son went for a dip in a fountain in the Piazza Navona.

According to Italian daily newspaper Il Mattino, police forced the boy out of the water, whilst his three young siblings all egged him on to get back into the fountain.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LOCAL councils across Spain have started to issue bye-laws limiting the use of electric scooters, 'hoverboards' and segways.

A method of transport fast growing in popularity across Europe, hoverboards and segways – the latter being capable of reaching speeds of up to 30 kilometres per hour – nevertheless pose risks to their users as well as pedestrians and other vehicles.

Barcelona has announced a ban on cyclists on pavements and is set to ban hoverboards and segways, who must use cycle lanes if available or travel on roads if not, and has limited their speeds to 30 kilometres per hour even when they are capable of moving faster.

Fines of between €100 and €500 will be imposed for anyone who fails to comply.

Madrid is looking to ban hoverboards and segways from pavements, road surfaces, cycle lanes, bus and taxi lanes and one-way, single-carriageway street.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CHILDREN'S leisure and gift chain Toys 'R' Us will remain open in Spain and Portugal now it has been bought out by the global firm Green Swan, according to the new company in a press release this week.

The toy giant announced it had gone bankrupt in June and its branches in the USA, where it originates from, and the UK were all closed down.

But thanks to Green Swan's having bought it as a going concern, the stores in Spain and Portugal will be able to continue open.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MORE batches of the high blood pressure drug Valsartan have been taken off the shelves after tests revealed the presence of N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a substance which could be cancerous, in some samples.

Changes in the manufacturing process at the Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical laboratory in China – authorised by the European Directorate of Quality in Medications (EDQM), part of the Council of Europe – involved a fresh battery of tests on drugs containing Valstartan as its principal ingredient or in combination with others.

The traces of NDMA have led to numerous countries being placed on immediate alert.

As a result, the Spanish Medications and Healthcare Products Agency (AEMPS) had already withdrawn several batches in July, but has now announced another list of the drugs are to be taken off sale.

Pharmacies have been warned and anyone taking medication for high blood pressure should check the ingredients carefully on their pill boxes, and return to their GP for a new prescription straight away.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CELEBRITIES' top holiday haunts include the Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Formentera, especially the former – and several famous faces of various nationalities have been spotted there already this summer.

Paris Hilton (pictured), already an established summer DJ in the Ibiza clubs, writes on Instagram, with the above photograph, that she is 'proud and excited' to be 'honoured with the title of Ambassador' of the island.

In fact, along with the idyllic sandy beaches – such as the Cala San Vicente, pictured below right - and plush yacht marinas, world-renowned clubs such as Pachá, Amnesia, Ushuaïa and Privilegia are among Ibiza's greatest attractions and often frequented by models, influencers, singers and sports personalities.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BENIDORM theme park Terra Natura's most iconic and popular resident celebrated her birthday in true Bollywood style this week as a nod to her Indian roots and invited all members of the public to join her.

Petita, who turned 46 on Saturday, is probably the Costa Blanca's best-loved elephant and has more Facebook friends than most humans.

Born in Benidorm, Petita was rejected by the rest of the herd for being 'ugly', because she was much smaller than newborn elephants usually are, and the isolation was leaving her feeling depressed.

Terra Natura paired her up with another female, Kaiso, with whom she became best friends and who helped her get in with the crowd.

She discovered Facebook at the age of 35 and now has plenty of human friends, too.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

'MYSTERY hackers' Anonymous have struck again – this time, shutting down the websites of the National Police, the reigning socialist (PSOE) party and the Constitutional Court.

All three organisations assure it has been 'business as usual' since the cyber-attack, but that they had 'several admin headaches' as a result.

Anonymous, which – as its name suggests – is an unknown 'hacktivist' group which operates across the country, tampering with websites to make its political views, largely left-wing, known to authorities.

This time, they were acting within their soi-disant 'Operation Free Catalunya' campaign, which has involved a series of hack attacks ever since the previous national government triggered Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to strip the north-eastern region of its self-rule and financial control in response to the disputed independence referendum of October 1.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

OUTGOING Formula 1 great Fernando Alonso has spoken publicly for the first time since he and his Toyota team-mates won the Silverstone 6-Hour race and then being disqualified within hours.

The twice-world champion, who announced this week that he would be retiring rom Formula 1 at the end of the current season, says he is 'fresh and motivated' to continue and is looking forward to this Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

After winning the Spa 6-Hour and Le Mans 24-Hour, team Toyota's No 8 car – driven by Alonso, France's Sebastien Buemi and Japan's Kazuki Nakajima – were already in the lead in the world championship standings and would have made it a hat-trick with Silverstone, having won all three WEC races to date.

And Toyota's No 7 car, driven by José María López, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, came second.

But today (Monday) brought a bitter blow for all six drivers when it was announced that both Toyotas had been disqualified.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

DRONE footage off the coast of Galicia shows a blue whale – the largest mammal on earth - swimming close to the Cíes Isles.

Captured on Wednesday but only just aired, the video shows a whale of an estimated 26 metres (just over 85 feet) in length flipping her tail and exhaling water jets.

The film is not very close-up, so it lacks detail to the naked eye, but the pilots from the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute (BDRI) in Galicia say it is the first time a drone has been used in Spain to snap these colossal animals on camera.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

POLICE in Catalunya are treating an incident involving a lone knife-bearer in the early hours as terrorism, but do not believe the would-be attacker was linked to any radical Islamic organisation.

Identified as Abdelouahab Taib, 29, originally from Algeria but legally resident in Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona province), the accused burst into the Mossos d'Esquadra, or regional police station at 05.45 shouting, Allahu Akbar ('God is great') and brandishing a knife described as 'huge'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Qualified electricians, carpenters, builders and plumbers are the tradespeople most difficult to find to fill job vacancies in Spanish firms, according to a new study by ManPowerGroup.

According to this latest report "How to combat the  lack of talent (create, attract, share, transform)", 24% of company directors in Spain have difficulties filling these vacancies in their companies.

The report's authors says that the data they have collected reflects the growing lack of talent in these areas on a global level (45%) and shows that the job of finding the ideal candidate is becoming more and more difficult because of changes in the employment market and the creation of new jobs that require specific skills and aptitudes.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

The 'black fly' (Simulium trifasciatum) is spreading across Spain, joining the Asiatic wasp and the tiger mosquito as one of the country's principal insect pests.

The black fly was first detected along the shores of the river Ebro in 2006, and shortly afterwards made its presence known in various different parts of Aragon, where some 2000 people had to receive emergency medical attention, constituting the first official plague of the insect in Spain.

The following year, 28,500 people in Aragon required medical attention because of black fly bites and now the people of Butarque (Madrid) have become the latest victims of a black fly plague, because of their proximity to the river Manzanares, which appears to be the ideal habitat for this aggressive insect.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MANCHESTER City's David Silva has announced his withdrawal from the Spanish national team – just four days after FC Barcelona's Gerard Piqué broke the news of his own departure.

Silva, one of a small number of footballers who have played more than 100 matches for their country – 125 in his case – along with Piqué, Carles Puyol and Raúl González, has penned an open letter to fans and to the team describing what he calls 'one of the most difficult decisions of his career'.

“The national team has given me everything and has allowed me to grow as a player and as a person,” Silva, 32, wrote.

He says he is leaving La Roja 'proud' and 'happy' with all that it and he have achieved and with all that he has 'lived and dreamed' in his 12-year history with the Spanish side.

This long chapter in Silva's life has included two UEFA Euro wins on the trot in 2008 and 2012 – the first in Austria and Switzerland and the second in Poland and Ukraine – and the FIFA World Cup in 2012 in South Africa, as well as scoring 35 goals for his nation.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TWICE-WORLD champion Fernando Alonso has announced he will be retiring from Formula 1 at the end of 2018 after 17 seasons.

The Oviedo-born motorsport legend, who has suffered a series of disappointing seasons with Ferrari and later McLaren who have both failed to provide him with a competitive car, was nevertheless a force to be reckoned with when racing for Rénault, a team that saw him carry off the championship in 2005 and 2006.

The first of these came after German legend Michael Schumacher's five world titles on the trot and, at 24, he was the youngest to wind the drivers' championship.

Since then, Alonso has also been reserve champion three times and made it to the podium in 97 races, 32 of which he won, despite only getting pole 22 times.

His victories after starting further back on the grid included his last-ever Formula 1 Grand Prix win on home turf in Valencia, when he roared up from 11th to cross the chequered flag ahead of everyone else – a supreme effort that was so taxing even for a talent of Alonso's magnitude that he actually broke down in tears at the end.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SEVEN-TIMES Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher is due to move to Mallorca where his wife Corinna has just bought a villa for €30 million.

The property, previously owned by Real Madrid chair Florentino Pérez but barely used since the death of his wife, is in Andratx in the south-west of the island and has been prepared specially for Michael to move in, according to Swiss magazine L'Illustré.

Mayoress of Andratx Katia Rouarch has confirmed the report is true.

It is not known whether he will become resident in Spain or whether he will only stay there for part of the year, since it is likely the family will want to continue being Swiss taxpayers, although as European Union citizens – originally from Germany – they do not have any restrictions on movement.

The Schumachers have been living in Gland, in the canton of Vaud, since 2002.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S most expensive house is on the market for €50 million, for which new owners will get six suites, two adjoining guest cottages, and 6,663 square metres (about an acre and a half) of land right on the seafront in Marbella (click on link to see).

According to a study by a leading property agency, the second-most expensive house in Spain is just up the road and also in the province of Málaga: a 12-bedroom, 7,000-square-metre villa with its own pool and tennis court and a private beach in the town of Mijas, which is on sale for a cool €35m.

The third- and fourth-most expensive homes in Spain are in Mallorca – in Alcúdia, at €30m, and in Puigpunyent in an 820,000-square-metre (203-acre) plot for €26.5m.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN ESTIMATED 312 spectators have been injured – nine of them seriously – after a wooden platform collapsed during the O Marisquiño fiestas in Vigo (Galicia) last night.

Those hurt were watching Mallorca rapper Rels B perform at the time of the accident caused by a structural problem with the raised dancefloor.

Panic ensued with hundreds of people running and screaming from the scene, including many teenagers.

Several fell into the sea, and personal effects such as handbags were left scattered on the ground.

Two of the injured are said to be in intensive care.

Mayor of Vigo Abel Caballero says 'nobody's life is in danger' and that 240 of the wounded have been discharged from hospital or did not need admission – despite having fallen from a height of several metres, at least the equivalent of a first-floor apartment.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A GERMAN tourist has been caught red-handed stealing archaeological artefacts from a restricted excavation site in Cartagena (Murcia).

Councillor Ana Rama, of the centre-right party Ciudadanos, testified as a witness today after catching the visitor slipping into the Molinete dig yesterday and 'placing several objects' into a freezer box.

She immediately contacted the Local Police, who arrested the holidaymaker and seized the pieces he had taken out of the dig.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

JOBLESS figures fell in July to 3.13 million – the best result in nearly a decade – with 200,903 workers taken off the dole compared with the same month last year, according to the ministry of work and social security.

The department, led by Magdalena Valerio – who has radical plans to overhaul employed and self-employed workers' rights since her appointment in early June – says last month saw 27,141 people given jobs and brought the unemployment total down to its lowest figure since December 2008, about a year after the financial crisis started to creep in.

Highest-ever unemployment was seen in February 2013, just 15 months after the previous right-wing PP-led government came into power and five months after they had set up a battery of belt-tightening measures including tax hikes that left residents poorer than ever.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A 10-MONTH-OLD baby has died after being left shut in a parked car from 07.00 to 15.00 in Manacor (Mallorca).

National Police say her grandfather, 56, was looking after her and claims he left her in the car initially because she was asleep, but then 'forgot' she was inside.

He did not remember until eight hours later.

The car-owner, a Spaniard, flagged down a doctor and two nurses he saw walking along the street after leaving the health centre near where the vehicle was parked.

But when they reached her, it was too late to save her.

The grandfather was taken to Manacor hospital in a state of shock and anxiety.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

REGGAETON star Daddy Yankee has had €2 million worth of jewellery and diamonds and US$2,500 in cash stolen from his hotel room in Valencia.

The Puerto Rican singer famous for last summer's duet with compatriot Luis Fonsi, Despacito – the first-ever Spanish language hit to reach number one in the UK charts – returned to his room at the four-star resort in the city on Tuesday to find his money and valuables missing.

An unknown individual had succeeded in passing for Daddy Yankee and asking hotel employees to open the safe in the bedroom.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NIGHT temperatures have been reaching new highs and sleep was nearly impossible for residents without air-conditioning – especially in the province of Badajoz (Extremadura).

The town of Navalvillar de Pela registered lows of 35.1ºC on Monday and the early hours of Tuesday – the most sweltering night temperatures Spain has seen this year.

Not far behind and in the same province was Herrera del Duque, where the mercury did not drop below 34ºC overnight, and in the other Extremadura province of Cáceres, the town of Zorita saw lows of 33ºC.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A 17-YEAR-OLD man is in a serious condition in Madrid's La Paz hospital after being electrocuted whilst taking selfies on the roof of a train.

His head touched the overhead cable on the line in Coslada, Madrid and a surge of electricity went through it, meaning medics have not ruled out possible brain damage.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A LIST of the cheapest and most expensive motorway tolls in Spain released by the ministry of public works shows that some stretches of highway cost up to eight times more to use than others.

Toll fees are set by the franchise companies which maintain and repair the roads out of the funds amassed from drivers, but some are so prohibitive that the system does not work as those travelling long distances avoid them and opt for slower back roads instead.

As an example, from the northern border of the province of Alicante to the airport near the south, tolls come in at €15 each way, or €30 return – yet it costs around €10 each way or €20 return in petrol.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FOREST fire in inland Valencia province has forced 2,500 people to flee their homes and already wiped out over 1,400 hectares (3,460 acres).

The inferno in Llutxent, in the central Vall d'Albaida district, is believed to have been caused by lightning after brief but dramatic electric storms crossed the province on Sunday and Monday nights.

Lack of wind means the blaze is not spreading too rapidly, but is still burning out of control and has already stretched into the neighbouring district of La Safor, a few kilometres from the coast, since yesterday afternoon.

At present, 21 planes and helicopters are dropping water on the flames and the Armed Forces emergency response unit has sent in 136 soldiers, whilst more than 50 fire engines are on site.

Those evacuated are based in the urbanisations of Montesol and Montepino, and also La Drova in the La Safor mountain village of Barx – a residential area with a very high concentration of British expats.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A HYPERLOOP research and testing centre will be set up in Málaga in a joint venture between Spain's rail infrastructure board ADIF and Richard Branson's Virgin empire at a cost of €430 million, according to a press release from both firms.

ADIF chairwoman Isabel Pardo de Vera has rubber-stamped a deal with Virgin Hyperloop One chief executive officer Rob Lloyd today (Tuesday) – a step closer to bringing the Hyperloop centre to Spain.

It will be based in Bobadilla (Málaga province) in ADIF's existing test centre for the high-speed AVE line, and is expected to create up to 250 jobs.

The Hyperloop is a bullet train capable of reaching speeds of up to 1,200 kilometres per hour (750mph), taking less than 60 minutes to cover distances that would take around 10 hours by car.

It would be able to get from Madrid to Barcelona in under 30 minutes, from Madrid to Valencia – a distance of over 350 kilometres – in less than 20 minutes, and from Madrid to the Cádiz-province port town of Algeciras, near Gibraltar, in 42 minutes.

Read more at thinkspain.com

PASSENGERS spent over 30 hours waiting at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris to fly home to Vigo (Pontevedra province, Galicia) after their Air Nostrum flight broke down on Sunday afternoon.

The 87 travellers were due to take off on flight IB-8423 at 14.00, but were still waiting in the French capital at 20.00 this evening (Monday).

The regional branch of Iberia said it had had 'problems' getting passengers on other flights because it is high tourism season and claims it offered 'various options', including connections via Madrid-Barajas and even the London airports.

In the end, Air Nostrum had to seek permission to charter a completely new flight – a 'special rescue operation', the company said – with 100 spaces, direct to Vigo's El Peinador airport from Paris.

It was expected to take off this evening, but it has not been confirmed whether the waiting travellers made it home.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A HEATWAVE sweeping the country and forcing temperatures into the mid-40s is about to end, but has already caused six deaths – two each in the provinces of Tarragona and Murcia and one each in those of Barcelona and Cáceres (Extremadura).

Additionally, the death of a 40-year-old German man walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrim trail is being investigated and may have been the result of extreme temperatures.

A man was found unconscious on Thursday in Constantí, Tarragona, near the Centcelles Roman heritage site and died two days later in the Joan XXIII Hospital, whilst on Saturday a 60-year-old man was also admitted and passed away later that evening – both from heatstroke.

Both may have been homeless and neither had any ID, so police are trying to identify them.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A RACIST verbal attack on a little girl and her mother on the Madrid metro was met with a flood of outrage by fellow passengers after their assailant reportedly told them they had 'no right' to be in Spain.

Luz Matamoros, originally from Nicaragua, was with her daughter, who is nearly seven and was born in Spain, when a female passenger blocked the child's seat as she was about to sit in it.

“You've no right to sit there,” she told the little girl.

“We had just got on the metro and my daughter was really tired, so a woman who was getting off the train offered her seat to her,” explains Luz.

“Just as my little girl sat down, another woman tried to stop her.

“She said, 'you lot come over here to sponge off our hard work'.

“I didn't understand any of it, and my daughter became really frightened.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EXPORTING wine to France may sound a little like selling coals to Newcastle, but Spain is shifting tonnes of an Almería chardonnay to its northern neighbour.

The quirk is that the wine in question is blue – which has proven a hit with French consumers.

Vindigo – a word-play on 'indigo' and vino – contains no artificial colouring, but instead is filtered through red grape-skin pulp which turns it purpley-bluish.

The grape skin naturally contains a colourant known as anthocyanins, also found in forest fruits and black beans.

Vindigo is described by distributors in France as 'perfect for summer', since its relatively low alcohol level – 11% - means it does not dehydrate so much, and its flavour is said to be 'fruity' with notes of passion fruit, blackberry and cherry.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ALL bar 21 of the migrants on board the Aquariuswhich docked in Valencia in early June have applied for asylum, but the adults who have not done so could be facing deportation.

In total, 629 were rescued and 608 have filed for refugee status.

They were granted an immediate 45-day visa on humanitarian grounds, which will be extended until their asylum application is accepted or rejected and any appeal channels against the latter result exhausted.

But for those who have not applied, their visas are fast running out, meaning they may not be able to remain in the country.

Of the 21 in limbo, six are unaccompanied minors who are under a different régime – the regional governments where they are currently residing will keep them in care or in foster homes.

A further 71 of the migrants who arrived in Valencia on June 17 were reported to be minors, although doubts have been expressed about the ages of five of them, who may in fact be over 18.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THIS weekend is set to bring some of the hottest temperatures on record to the continent of Europe, with Saturday seeing the mercury soar to unprecedented levels.

According to Spain's State meteorological agency, AEMET, Europe's 41-year record could even be broken.

This was set on July 10, 1977 when thermometers shot up to 48ºC in the shade in the Greek capital, Athens.

Spain's and Portugal's record temperatures are much more recent, but showed very little difference.

The hottest-ever reading in Spain was just a year ago, on July 13, when the weather station in Montoro (Córdoba province) in inland Andalucía showed a reading of 47.3ºC in the shade.

Portugal's highest-ever temperature was 47.4ºC, on August 1, 2003 in Amareleja in the district of Beja, inland and towards the south.

And weather experts believe the mercury could even rise to 50ºC in the shade during the hottest part of the day, which is normally around 16.00 or 17.00 in Spain.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AMBULANCES, fire engines and Civil Protection vehicles will now have flashing blue lights rather than orange ones starting today, according to a government announcement.

Currently, only police cars have blue lights and all other 'priority' vehicles have orange ones – which includes slow-moving cars, vans and lorries, wide loads, and those which need to block the carriageway to carry out a vital public service.

This has always led to confusion among other road users, as they have never been sure which ones to allow to pass.

Whilst drivers pull onto hard shoulders or even pavements to let ambulances and fire engines pass, they would not need to do so for a maintenance vehicle.

This will bring Spain in line with other EU countries, which is particularly important in France and Portugal where Spanish vehicles have to attend to emergency services in border areas.

As well as the change in light colour from orange to blue, registration plates will now be different for commercial vehicles.

They will be yellow for those which could produce an obstruction, and blue for emergency and priority vehicles.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AIRPORT duty-free shopping is up to 41% more expensive than buying the same goods online, according to Spanish price comparison website Idealo.es.

Duty free goods are sold free of national tax for passengers travelling to or from destinations outside the European Union, and many believe they are picking up a bargain.

But it could be that it is no cheaper than buying the items outside the airport – in fact, they could even be more expensive.

One of the most frequently-purchased duty-free goods, perfume, is 41% cheaper online for men and 28% cheaper bought via the internet for women, Idealo says.

Alcohol, another duty-free staple, averages 9% more expensive bought airside in the case of sparkling wines such as champagne and cava and can be as much as 16% more than when bought online.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com